Made in Hollywood

The Regent Hotel on Wischel Street in Beverly Hills is full of stars. Even if it is also held in the form of a formal banquet, it is more luxurious and attractive than the just-concluded Golden Globe awards ceremony, because this is an Oscar nominee noon Banquet, announced the nomination list for the 68th Oscar Awards.

The nomination list is at the end. Richard Dreyfus on the stage is reading the best picture nomination, "The Postman, Run Little Pig," "Brave Heart", "Sense and Emotion" and "Rescue Private Ryan."

"Yes!"

Although they had guessed the result in advance, the two production managers Charles Rowan and Robin Grande still gave high fives. Duke glanced at them and asked the female assistant sitting next to him, "Tina, statistics show How many nominations have we received?"

Tina Fei flipped through the record book and said, "Best soundtrack, best makeup, best art direction, best original screenplay, best sound editing, best film editing, best sound, recent photography, best male Leading role, best director, best film, eleven nominations in total!"

"Where is our opponent?" Robin Grande approached and asked.

Needless to say, Tina Fei also knows that he asked "Brave Heart" and said, "Best soundtrack, best makeup, best costume, costume design, best movie editing, best sound effects, best Best original script, best sound editing, best photography, best director and best film, ten nominations."

She added, "Except for the best costume design, the rest of the awards are in direct competition with us."

Charles Rowan looked at "Brave Heart", Mel Gibson, who was being irritated by public opinion and almost rejected by everyone in Hollywood, did not attend. He could not help but snorted, "They can use a few techniques at most. Award, want to win a heavyweight award, huh..."

Several people looked at Duke at the same time. Duke stretched out his hands innocently, indicating that it had nothing to do with him.

In the past few days, relevant news kept coming. Some of the most heavyweights came from Mel Gibson’s original partners Paramount Pictures and Viacom. It was probably stimulated by Mel Gibson’s words. Summer Redstone personally intervened in the cooperation projects of its subsidiaries. Paramount announced yesterday that the new movie project "Ransom Storm" will replace the original actor Mel Gibson, and Columbia Television (cbs) also Will give up shows related to Mel Gibson.

Several other companies, although they did not publicly stated, there have been news in private that they will not consider cooperation with Mel Gibson in the short term.

These actions are not only because of Jewish descent. Racial discrimination is a forbidden area that public figures cannot touch, and people who get into such troubles. It will be resisted by a large number of viewers, and no company wants to produce works that are destined to lose money.

After presenting the Oscars for scientific and technological achievements to John Lasseter and Steve Jobs of Pixar Studios, the nominees luncheon this year came to an end.

"Robin, we have to prepare the dress in advance."

The banquet dissipated, and everyone was in no hurry to leave. Charles Rowan said to Robin Grande, "If there is no accident, we will lift up the best film statuette."

The specific award-winning work of the crew. The two production managers have been coordinating with the production distributor, and Duke couldn't help but look at him and ask. "You look so sure?"

"The original possibility was only 60%." Charles Rowan was confident, "Now it is 80%!"

Robin Grande slapped Duke on the arm. "You should now consider who you will take on the carpet. This is the best opportunity to promote the film."

Duke knew he was talking about "Chicago", this film will definitely miss the Super Bowl midfield ad, and the Oscar red carpet is also a good opportunity for publicity. It is a waste of him to walk on the red carpet alone. How to maximize the value of the Oscar invitation is also a question that investors of his film must consider.

After thinking about it, Duke decided to throw this kind of thing to professionals. Penny Kelly has much more experience in this area than him.

Several others are still talking about it. Duke's eyes turned to the other side. It was John Lasseter and Steve Jobs. The ugly duckling of Pixar Studios finally transformed into a white swan, and made the latter into the ranks of billionaires.

Just don't know when he will return to Apple?

After thinking about it for a while, Duke still has no impression. He can only secretly sigh that his head is too stupid. Except for some movie-related content and popular goods such as 911, many events that happened in North America have no memory. .

Afterwards, he was relieved, after all, he didn't have Google in his head.

Out of the Regent Hotel, Duke called Charles Rowan when the parking lot was about to separate.

"Charles, the Oscar PR has come to the end." He walked to the other side and asked, "I understand, you have not cooperated with Warner recently. Are you interested in continuing to cooperate with me? Starting next year, I need to be able to People who are trustworthy go to New Zealand to start preparing for a large-scale project, and may have to stay there for three to five years."

"May I think about it?" Charles Rowan didn't ask about the specific project.

Before he expressed his intention to cooperate, Duke would not tell him the details.

Leaving Beverly Hills, Duke and Robin Grande went to the Warner Studios in Burbank. The harassment from the outside did not affect the crew. Various preparations have been going on, even props, sets, and rentals. When the work has been completed, only wait for the actors to rehearse.

Lily Fred’s rehearsal of singing and dancing has also been recognized by Duke. According to the current rehearsal schedule, he initially planned to start the film after the Oscars.

"Congratulations, Duke."

Just walked into the studio, Duke met Tom Cruise, his smile looked very sincere, "Congratulations on your nomination for best director."

"Thank you, Tom." Duke greeted him very politely. Since Cruise entered the crew, the two have maintained a good superficial relationship, "I will remember everything you did for me."

"you are welcome."

Thinking of the night of the Golden Globes and the current Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise doesn’t know why, but will always be afraid of Duke, “We are partners and we should work together.”

He checked his watch. "My dance class is over today, there is still something to do. Let's go first and talk about it another day."

"Okay." Duke beckoned to him, "Goodbye, Tom."

As long as Tom Cruise is there. There is never a shortage of reporters and paparazzi. When I just came in, there were dozens of people with cameras hanging near the Warner Studios. From a publicity standpoint alone, it was a very cost-effective thing to invite him to appear in "Chicago".

Went to the dance studio to see the training of the group of actresses. Duke went to the Warner Building in front and met with the director of the Warner Bros. Distribution Department to discuss some of the future announcements, compared to the summer production in the past. File movie. The theme of "Chicago" is inherently insufficient, and the overall investment in the film is relatively low.

More importantly, it is too far away from the glorious era of the genre of musicals. Even if he is the director of this film, he will not be able to change the way "Chicago" can only be shown on a small scale or even on a small scale in the future. North America started painting.

How to use limited resources to promote the film has become the focus of recent exchanges between the crew and Warner Bros.

Tom Cruise is the most shining propaganda spot, but frequent use can also cause aesthetic fatigue. Excessive bombing can even make people rebellious. New propaganda spots are particularly important. When leaving Warner, Duke simply hung up the phone with Penny Kelly. Give this job to her.

Time is approaching the Oscars ceremony step by step. Because "Saving Private Ryan" won eleven Oscar nominations, after the nominees lunch, the film once again returned to mainstream commercial theaters, expanding from 115 theaters to 812 at the weekend Family.

The Oscars of this era have far more box-office pulling effects than after the Internet explosion. Fans who haven't seen it walk into the theater because of the nomination. Some fans who have seen it also choose to review it again in order to wait for the Oscars.

Like most nominated films, "Saving Private Ryan" rebounded sharply at the box office. In the last week of January and the first two weeks of February, they received US$3.52 million, US$2.76 million, and US$2.11 million at the box office respectively. The North American box office has so far totaled US$322.17 million!

This film also completely consumed all market potential. By the last day of Oscar's return of votes in mid-March, all theaters in North America were off the shelves, and the North American box office was finally fixed at $325.79 million.

Duke easily won the second North American box office title of the year, and the second place in "Toy Story" was nearly 150 million US dollars away!

On the same day, "Brave Heart" also finished its tour of North American theaters. After being nominated for Oscar, this film also ushered in a small rebound. However, due to the influence of the Gibson incident, the rebound has always been limited. , Only put the film’s North American box office into the 30 million U.S. dollar mark and ended in North America with 31.75 million U.S. dollars.

The efforts of the North American market in the last hours have also led to a significant increase in the global box office of "Brave Heart". After being screened in major markets such as the Commonwealth, Europe, and Australia, the box office numbers of the film are finally no longer so terrible. The global box office On the day of March 15th, the 100 million dollar mark was passed with difficulty!

If you count the video tape and TV copyright income after the Oscars, "Brave Heart" will not take too long to recover its costs. However, as the project leader, caa is not happy at all. The competitor released at the same time as them, "Save "Private Ryan" basically fell from the global market, with a global box office of 649.27 million US dollars~

This number is second only to "Jurassic Park", "Independence Day", "The Lion King" and "et Aliens", ranking fifth in the film history list!

"Although Lucasfilm is preparing to rescreen "Star Wars" again, the box office after the rescreening will inevitably surpass "Saving Private Ryan", but now among the top five movies in film history, two of them are from Duke. Rosenberg! Such a director who can match Spielberg, but is the outcast of Caa, shouldn't someone at Caa be responsible for this?"

The cold voice floated in the conference room of caa, and no one could say anything to refute. (To be continued...)